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"I've been cheffing for 10 years. I left school and started working in my local pub and worked my way up in kitchens all over Cornwall.

"Over the years I've used so many knives. When you work in a kitchen you spend easily 10 hours a day prepping veg and chopping. That's a lot of time spent using knives. I know what makes a good knife and what doesn't. One thing for sure is that the cheap knives you get in shops aren't good enough."

The pair made their own mini forge from scratch, which they started to mess about on in their garden.

Dan took one of their creations to a friend and showed their knives to college buddies when Dan was doing his NVQ level 3.

Justin Sinclair with two of the hand-forged knives

What was supposed to be a one-off not-for-sale knife led to a flurry of inquiries and orders.

Justin said: "It all started as a bit of fun, now it's a real business and we get to spend all day playing with fire, it's awesome.

"We do different knives, I like working completely from scratch from just a bit of metal, forging it into the shape of a knife, grinding it down, sharpening it all and making the handles from scratch - when you spend a day up there and you get to hold something that you've created out of nothing, that's what its all about for me."

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He added: "I've always liked working with my hands. I was a chef for years, but I stopped because I needed more 'normal' hours to be able to spend time with my family, it's a hard life in the kitchen, but we both love cooking and we are passionate about food."

Dan added: "We have read up a lot on metal work, forging and watched countless videos on YouTube. It's been a long and hard process to learn how to make knives in the forge and beating them into shape on the anvil.

"But we've had a lot of people ask us if they could have one. At the time it was supposed to be a one-off, but we had so much interest that we decided to set up our own workshop."

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The pair moved their fledgling concept into an old farrier's workshop outside St Agnes and now a farrier's forge had come back to life.

Justin, who now works in the fibreglass industry in Pool, said: "Our workshop has been used as a farrier forge for years. It's amazing to be in a location so historic, looking out over the tin mines, using Cornish products and creating something unique in a traditional way."

Justin in the Pareusi workshop with one of the hand-forged knives

"We're involved in the whole process, so we do resharpening.

"All our woods are locally sourced from Cornwall. Everything we can we source in Cornwall. I think that's what makes our knives so special."

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Dan added: "We're both passionate about Cornwall and our Cornish heritage. We feel it is important to do something traditional for the area that we are in and see this forge continue to be alive in an area like St Agnes."

Pareusi, which is the Cornish word for 'prepare, cook or make ready', is the name Dan and Justin have given their one-year-old company. So far they have made and sold 50 knives, but demand is booming.

Dan working on one of his knives (Image: Sally Adams)

"We had to expand because we've had so much interest," said Justin. "Now we're getting orders from everywhere."

The friends have had orders come in from chefs in New Zealand and Australia, Austria and even Kenya.

There is a beauty to hand-made high quality objects produced in a traditional artisan way. Paleusi Knives are produced using high carbon steel, walnut, helm or custom hardwoods for handles and steel pins to hold them together.

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Each knife can be unique to the beholder, as each buyer decides on a design from the way the blade curves and is tempered to the grain of the wood in the handle or the shape and the pins that hold the knife together.

It takes about 15 to 20 hours to produce a bespoke chef knife (Image: Sally Adams)

It takes about 15 to 20 hours to produce a hand-forged chef knife and everything is sourced as locally as possible.

The knives are in the 'falcata' style, which is an old Celtic blade once used in battles or the arrow head-shaped blade.

What makes these knives special is how they have been designed for long hours of usage, which is why there is a finger curved loop in the blade where it meets the handle as chefs tend to hold their knives over the blade or as close as they can to it as possible.

Justin added: "You can't be a chef without having a passion for your tools as well, so it all links in with the things we really care about."

To make contact with Dan or Justin at Pareusi, check out their Facebook page at Pareusiknives.